Textile Workers: Skills, Labour and Status of Textile Craftspeople Between the Prehistoric Aegean and the Ancient Near East

Studies on ancient textiles currently know a considerable growth. This volume contributes to the field, focusing on craftmanship. By surveying various cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Aegean, the compiled articles offer an overview of textile workers in action from the Stone Age to Late Antiquity. Combining various approaches such as archaeology, text studies, and experimentation, the contributions explore the social status, gender, age, and working conditions of the textile workers. Moreover, they investigate their intellectual capability, through a study of the acquisition, performance and transmission of skills. This collective work aims at opening a new perspective in the field of textile studies, in particular in the history of textile crafts in ancient societies.